Applecopters and Dobbies

How to Have an Affordable Family Vacation in Lake Tahoe

We’re in the last stretch of our family vacation in Tahoe. It looks like we’re keeping fairly close to our budget. We’re a family of four, two parents, one 6-year old and one 2-year old daughter living in the Bay Area. So, here are a few of the things we did to make this incredible vacation not do terrible damage to the bank account and rough estimate of what we’ll have spent by the time we head home. Maybe you’ll find some of these tips useful:

 

1. Go during daughter #1’s Spring Break. Savings = $150+ (since we would have had to put her in Spring Break Camp)

 

2. Borrowed ski clothes for the kids. Our community has a Yahoo Group where you can ask questions and make offers to other families in the community. I put out a call to borrow stuff and got a few offers from people to let us borrow ski pants, jackets and boots. Incredible the kindness of strangers! Cost = $0

 

3. Research discounted lift tickets and special offers. By doing a little research on the Internet I found some greats deals. Kirkwood Ski Resort has an offer for March where if you put your child (aged 3+) in a full day ski or snowboard class, they’ll give you a full day lift ticket for a parent for free. One day of ski school = $110, we did this for two days, Cost = $220 (I could have gotten this down to $170 if I would have booked the 2 out of 3 consecutive days package)

 

4. Take advantage of the “parent predicament” lift tickets that many resorts offer. This allows the parents to share a lift ticket so that one can stay in the lodge and hang out with child while the other one hits the slopes. Cost = $0

 

5. Purchase lift tickets before leaving home at Sports Basement before heading up to the mountains. We were able to buy Kirkwood full day adult passes for $50 each. We bought four. If we don’t use them, we can return them before April 15. Cost = $100 since we’ll probably return at least two of them.

 

6. I also did a little research on where to rent equipment locally for a reasonable price. Again, Sports Basement, had a great deal. We rented ski equipment for 2 adults and 1 child for $100 for 4 days. In line with other ski rental places, Sports Basement doesn’t charge for the day you pick up or the day you drop off.

 

7. Pack up groceries from home. We loaded up a cooler and some shopping bags with groceries that we had around the house so that when we arrived we didn’t have to buy a bunch of food. This not only saved us money, but it allowed us to settle in to our borrowed Tahoe home right away instead of stopping to buy groceries on the away. Cost = $0

 

8. Brought food and drinks to the lodge along with entertainment for the little one who wasn’t in ski school. Many lodges frown on this so do it at your own risk but we had no problem. We generally purchased some stuff French fries, hot chocolate and maybe even a burger here or there. Estimated cost = $100 ($20/day)

 

9. One grocery trip while in Tahoe, Cost = $100 (including a $30 bottle of Scotch for our hosts)

 

10. Last but not least, we were very lucky and were able to get a free place to stay thanks to some very generous and gracious family friends. If that’s not an option for you, Kirkwood has some great ski & stay deals which would save you the 45-minute – 1.5 hour drive each way that we did. Cost = $350 ($50/day for utilities plus $100 for cleaning)

 

We had a few unbudgeted items as well, like some socks and turtlenecks at Sports Basement and a couple half day tickets for the first couple days that we didn’t plan to ski (the snow has been amazing!!) so that was probably another $150 in half day lift tickets at other ski resorts. I’ll leave out the other stuff since it’s not really a cost of this particular vacation and can be amortized.

Here’s how the trip totaled out: Expenses = $970 minus the credit for what we would have spent on camp ($150) puts us at $820 for a 5-day ski vacation in Lake Tahoe. That works out to $205 per person. Scoring the sweet deals made the vacation that much more enjoyable!

 

The Shoe Drops

The Teeds:

-currently missing 3 front teeth with the 4th very wiggly and destined to fall out soon. Making a killing with the tooth fairly who pays five bucks a tooth on days that s/he doesn't have single dollar bills or coins.

-about to test for her green belt in Kung Fu. Classic phrase:  "Want to see my form?"

-doing lots of cool 3-dimensional art. Most recent piece is sheets of paper she drew on and taped together and then hung under the top bunk to create a curtain and a door for the lower bunk.

-wants to share her room with her sister but also gets annoyed when said sister gets in her stuff

Else Belse:

-saying lots of words, the cutest of which has to be "Dobbie" which means dog. Still saying something like "chechuchechu" where "ch" is a sound in the back of the throat and must be said in conjunction with rubbing fingers together which altogether means cat.

-just this weekend started insisting on giving hugs by calling out "hug" and spreading her arms

-loves taking showers with mommy and complains when she isn't invited in. Just waiting for her to launch herself into the tub with her pj's on.

-has taken her shoes off while on the back of mommy's bike more than once and dropped them in the road. To her credit, she does call out "shoe" before dropping one so I guess there is some warning...at least it's better than the time she managed to slip off her helmet.

Elsa, 16 months

An assortment of Elsa updates:
-She teased us with walking 10 steps when we were in Tahoe a month ago and pretty much stopped after that. The weekend that I came home from the hospital she started walking in earnest, doing laps around the house. She'll still pud out and knee walk but she's officially a toddler!
-She's still nursing. I thought that week in the hospital would be our weaning opportunity but once she had me back at home, she got back down to business. My hopes of wearing regular bras again were dashed, at least for the time being.
-She loves playing with balls.
-She's a picky eater and loves her carbs. Not as easy to get veggies into that kid, esp green ones.
-She's still a mini and off the growth charts, but she's happy and healthy. I wonder if she'll always be petite.
-Her hair is getting curly which is so cute. Nick says her hair is like his was. It's cute now but it'll be a bear to tame later if she really has his hair.
-She can say a few words, "ball" which sounds like "ba" and "dog" which sounds like "da". She says "mama" which seems to mean me or Mathilda.

One tough bitch

I've now been out of the hospital for a week. I was admitted last Friday night into the ER for a Group A strep blood infection, most likely caused by getting an IUD. I was THAT unlucky person, the 1 in 10,000 who has "complications." I had some bad luck in my life but I thought all of that was behind me. I've been quite blessed in the last several years. I'm still reeling from the effed up situation I just survived. I'm still recovering. I spent 7 days in the hospital (Fri night to Thursday mid-day) being pumped full of a cocktail of antibiotics. The docs love telling me how sick I was. One of the ways they measure that is something called "C Reactive Protein" and in most people the quantity in their system is 1 or less and I had 67 when I was admitted, 10 when I checked out. The main infectious disease doc told me that it was amazing I wasn't in the ICU. It's a testament to my good health.

Spending time in the hospital gives one the opportunity to count one's blessings, feel sorry for oneself, feel grateful, watch a lot of TV, read, contemplate all the letters of appreciation one will write, etc. I did all of the above. I thought a lot about all of the people that I want to keep in better touch with. I was sad that my girls were freaked out and trying to cope w/o me. Mathilda was stressed out. Elsa wouldn't let me hold her and stopped nursing while I was in the hospital. My brother was sweet and visited me several times. My inlaws came to take care of Nick and the girls. Work sent me flowers. The nurses were sweet. I especially liked Rashunda who always had a smile and kind word for me. She listened when I was upset or nervous. I'm tearing up writing this.

The most important thing is that I'm home and on the mend. I've got a PICC line in my arm so I can give myself intravenous antibiotics. I've still got cellulitis in my leg that is keeping me from walking normally and probably keeping me from overexerting myself. As annoyed as I am about the stuff in my leg, I'm grateful that it showed up there to get me into the doc's office and ultimately the hospital. Who knows how high my fever was going to have to get before I took it seriously enough to drag myself into the ER?

One of my most treasured experiences at the hospital was sitting on my bed around sunset and Nick showing up with the light shining behind him as he entered my room with Elsa in one arm and a gigantic jasmine plan in the other. He was my night in shining armor. The jasmine plant made my hospital room smell so fragrant that everybody that came in commented on it. What a man!

I've learned a bit about myself through this experience: 1) I'm one tough bitch, 2) I need to realize that even though I may "seem" okay (damn that perky voice) externally, it doesn't mean I am. It means I have a high pain tolerance and an exceptional ability to look like I'm fine when I'm not, 3) I love to write letters of appreciation in my head but rarely follow through, 4) I am loved.

Mathilda preschool graduation & business card

Kindergarten-Grad-Pic-Biz-C

Nick and Mathilda made these business cards a couple weeks ago. So adorable and surprisingly useful. She's left them with people holding garage sales when she's seen something she likes but wants a better deal (her father's daughter!). They also came in handy at the Lum kindergarten playgroup we went to yesterday.

Love that kid!

Dear Mr. President

LetterToPresident

My father would be greatly disappointed to read this fan letter that Mathilda wrote to President Obama this morning. He is not a fan. Although I'm sure he'd be proud that Mathilda wrote a letter to the president. I imagine he'd prefer that she wrote a letter to him. Maybe someday.

This letter is going in the mail Monday morning. I sure hope he replies or we'll have a disappointed 5 year old on our hands.

She's a crawler, biter, eater, smiler (@ 7 months)

Elsa seems to be doing everything early. She got her first tooth at 4 months. Now she has 2 big front teeth on the bottom and their sisters on either side are coming in plus more on top. Through all this teething, she remains the smiley-est baby in town. She smiles so much that people comment on it.  Even people that see her a lot.  She has a way of grinning from top to bottom. She put on that bright smile, her eyes light up and she'll look away bashfully while she straightens her legs and throw herself up somehow. It's hard to describe but delightful to see.

The big news that finally got me to sit down in front of a computer in my non-working hours was that she started crawling. It's not perfect cross crawling but she can move from one place to another. She'll be on her hands and knees and move one hand/knee step and throw her chest on the floor in the direction she wants to go and then bring her hands and knees back underneath herself. Today she managed to pull out the dog treats which made Pluto pretty happy. Yesterday she was snacking on weeds while we worked in the garden. We kept plunking her back into the middle of the blanket but she managed to get to the crunchy weeds.

As for eating, she seems to have gotten the hang of that finally. She's not the enthusiastic chomper that Mathilda was but at least she's opening her mouth and getting food down with only minimal weird faces. So far she's had rice cereal, millet cereal, yogurt, avocado, bananas, summer squash, sweet potato, carrots, peach, mango and possibly something Nick gave her without my supervision.

Which reminds me that I need to go get a sweet potato out of the microwave and package it up for future meals.

Ciao

"Sell-phone"

<conversation>
Mathilda: "What kind of phone is this?" asking about her friend Sam's toy cell phone.
Me: "Cell phone, I guess."
Mathilda: "Oh. So you use it to sell things."
</conversation>

Elsa: 4 months and 2 teeth

Tooth

It's been a big week in the Myerhoff household. It was revealed that Elsa's drooling was in fact due to teething. She has two teeth poking through her bottom gum. Amazing.

Today was her 4 month birthday and 4 month checkup. It was no surprise to learn that she's perfectly healthy. She smiled at everybody and was declared a "happy baby" by the pediatrician, Dr. Lee.

She is such a sweet baby. Very smiley and charming. She has a way of smiling at people and them looking away like she's bashful. It's adorable. Sometimes she looks at me with an expression like we are sharing some sort of inside joke. I can't help but smile at her whenever I look at her. Lately I've been giving her lots of raspberries on her belly. That definitely makes her giggle. Speaking of which she had graduated to really cracking up. Mathilda in particular can really make her laugh. Watching the two of them together is heartwarming. Mathilda is a sweet and wonderful big sister. She has seemed entirely comfortable with the whole baby thing but she has just recently started sucking her thumb, which is something she never really did before. We're not telling her to stop. I'm assuming it will pass.

Leopard-caun

Teentitans_10

It's St. Patrick's Day and when I picked Mathilda up from preschool today she was talking about how the "Leopard-Caun" came today. He's green and "leopard-ish" and left some gold outside her school in the playground area. Two of her school-mates claim to have seen it...hmmm...makes me wonder about those two. Are they in on the scam or just scammers? Anyway, I thought "leapord-caun" was adorable so I had to make note of it somewhere.

She said that her teachers had told the kids that if they didn't take their naps that the leopard-caun was going to tell the Easter Bunny not to come. Pretty weak. It sounds like something I might say in one of my weaker moments.